Quick! Take a look at your Facebook profile. What do you "like"? Do you really like these things? Are you willing to PUT YOUR REPUTATION ON THE LINE just so you can affirm your affection for the NRA?

These aren't questions we should have to ask ourselves. Can't we support our favorite political party in peace? Can't we like things without LIKING THEM IN YOUR FACE?

Nope. Not on Facebook, we can't.

Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott reports that he's seen in his feed more than a few political pages posted via page of a friend who "likes" said campaign. These aren't sponsored posts, which would say so. These are posts put out by Facebook, a spokesperson for the company told Bott.

"To help people find new Pages, events, and other interesting information, people may now see posts from a Page a friend likes. These posts will include the social context from your friends who like the Page and will respect all existing settings."

You can hide individual stories as they appear, but you can't block the page from posting again, and again, and again. And even if you remove the friend completely from your news feed, the forcibly shared posts appear. The only way to stop it is to unfriend the person whose Facebook identity is being misused.

Bott notes that this is an especially troublesome trick during an election season, when—while perhaps it's fine that your actual friends are reminded of your staunch conservative political stance—you might not want this info to be shared with your boss, great aunt, intern, or that guy who you just started dating. And, at this point, it's not surprising that these people are all already your friends on Facebook.

Now's a good time to go back, prune that "like" list, and shake your first heavenward at Zuck, wherever he may be. [ZDNet]